Wicca

Wicca is the Saxon root word meaning “to bend.” Sometimes, though with less justification, it is traced to the word for “wise,” and also the word meaning “wit.” It has become the adopted general term for practitioners within the modern witchcraft movement. Some eschew the term, however, and prefer to refer to “the Craft,” which has a Freemasonic connotation. Not surprisingly, leading figures in the modern witchcraft movement have all been high-ranking Freemasons, eg Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders.

The anthropogist Margaret Murray argued in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1931) that the medieval witches did not worship the Devil, but were followers of a pre-Christian pagan religion which Murray claimed “appears to be the ancient religion of Western Europe.” Murray dubbed this “old religion” Dianic, after the goddess Diana.

Not everyone agrees with Murray.

Seán Manchester, in From Satan To Christ (1988), remarks: “[Murray’s] view was accepted at the time and led to the present rebirth of witchcraft both here and abroad. Although her theory has subsequently been discredited, covens of witches are on the increase today.”

Eminent historian of the esoteric and the occult, Richard Cavendish, in A History of Magic (1987), states: “This brilliant and ingenious theory [by Margaret Murray] is unfortunately full of holes and has been demolished time and again.”

Other scholars now point out that there is actually no evidence whatsoever for a “one goddess” religion as described by Murray. Pagan religions were pantheist rather than female monotheist. Murray, according to those who criticise her on academic grounds, came up with her theory, then selected evidence to support it.

Present-day Dianic wicca stems mostly from Murray’s thesis; though there are also claims that worship of Diana as a moon deity survived in Europe as a mystery religion long after the fall of the Roman Empire in a mode quite different to that suggested in Murray's hypothesis. Wicca is a religion of the goddess with an emphasis on the female aspect. However, in many ways it is historically more a spiritual expression of the feminist movement than a restoration of ancient witchcraft.

Other works significant in the development of wicca were Charles Leland’s Arcadia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and Robert Graves’ The White Goddess.

Self-styled "Queen of the Witches"

Maxine Sanders (born 1946)

Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) belonged to a Rosicrucian group and was an initiate of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis. Gardner published Witchcraft Today in 1954. After Gardner came Alex Sanders (1926-1988) and his wife, Maxine, whose flamboyant style popularised wicca in the 1960s. Maxine Sanders, who separated from her husband in 1973, remained a leading wiccan figure.

Self-proclaimed "High Priest of

Witchcraft" from 1973 to 1982,

David Farrant (1946 - 2019)

There have been no figures subsequent to Crowley, Gardner and Sanders in wicca’s short history to have made much of an impact. Most of the current crop are pursuing a form diluted with other elements within the New Age movement of the last decade or so, and tend not to embrace charismatic leadership. At the other end of the witchcraft spectrum, there are the obvious attention seekers who use wicca as a means to gain self-publicity.

The Wiccan Rede: 

"Bide the Witches' Law ye must, 

In perfect Love and perfect Trust. 

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill; 

’An' it harm none, do what ye will.’ 

What ye send forth cometh back to thee, 

So e'er mind the Rule of Three. 

Follow this with mind and heart, 

And merry ye meet and merry ye part."

The first similar utterances of it were: "fay çe que vouldras."

Which means simply "Do what thou wilt," and is taken from a fictional satire Gargantua by François Rabelais. This was adopted by one of the Hellfire Clubs, whose membership admired the text.

Aleister Crowley later picked up on this, and stole most of the Thelema axiom from Rabelais via the Hellfire club and adapted it to: “Do What Thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law, Love is the Law, Love Under Will.”

Much later, when Doreen Valiente was writing up the tenets of Gardnerian Witchcraft, which in turn plagiarised a lot from Crowley, who may or may not have contributed material himself, she adapted this into simply:

"An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt"

Any other bits of poetry tacked on to this most probably came from bad American writers in the 1990s.

Gerald Gardner, Alex Sanders and Witchcraft

The story of modern witchcraft definitively began with Gerald Gardner who was born on 13 June 1884 at Great Crosby, near Blundell Sands in Lancashire, England. Gardner definitely accumulated an extensive occult background.  His formative years were spent in South East Asia where he became a Mason (in Ceylon) and also a nudist. In 1939 Gardner returned to England an avid occultist. He immediately became a member of the Rosicrucians and through such associations met a certain Dorothy Clutterbuck, known as “Old Dorothy,” who allegedly initiated Gardner into the New Forest Coven in September of that year. However, research suggests that Gardner did not discover a pre-existing witchcraft group. A paper by Gardner disclosed that he took the magical resources he acquired in Asia and a selection of Western magical texts and created a new religion centred upon the worship of the Mother Goddess, which is precisely what has become the focus of modern witches.

Gerald Gardner (1884-1964)

Ten years after his self-proclaimed initiation, Gardner published a fictional account of witches called High Magick’s Aid. Then, following the repeal of the witchcraft laws in Britain in 1951, he followed this with a non-fiction book, titled Witchcraft Today, published in 1954. His high point came when he was invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace in 1960. Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern witchcraft, died on 13th February 1964 while returning from abroad on the SS Scottish Prince.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)

In addition to Margaret Murray, the influence of Aleister Crowley, Theosophy, Freemasonry, ritual sex magic etc all blended eclectically in the writings of Gerald Gardner. Out of the cauldron of his mind emerged modern witchcraft, or as it is commonly called, wicca. Robin Skelton, himself a witch, confirms in his book The Practice of Witchcraft Today that “Gardner’s work influenced the Old Religion deeply. His rituals owed much to the occult and kabbalistic tradition. His admiration for the occultist Aleister Crowley led him to include some of Crowley’s words and rituals … the sexual rituals and practices of Hindu Tantrism crept into occultism in the late nineteenth century and deeply influenced Aleister Crowley who, in turn, influenced Gerald Gardner and therefore Gardnerian witchcraft.” Gardner’s connection with Crowley has a deeper shared philosophical root. One of the founders of Ordo Templi Orientis was the Freemason Franz Hartmann, a companion of the theosophist Helena Blavatsky. Prior to Gardner’s discovery of witchcraft, he was a member of a Rosicrucian fraternity, the Fellowship of Crotona. This was an offshoot of the Temple of the Rosy Cross which was founded by Annie Besant, the British leader of a second theosophical society that sprang up after the death of Madame Blavatsky. An OTO writer in Pagan News (August 1989) maintains that “Crowley wrote the Gnostic Mass as the public ritual of the OTO … it should be remembered that sections have been incorporated into the Great Rite, the third and highest wiccan initiation.” Some hold that Gardner actually paid Crowley to write the rituals that have become fundamental to modern witchcraft. As far back as 1915 Crowley had advised: “The time is just ripe for a natural religion … be the founder of a new and greater Pagan cult.”

Alex Sanders (1926-1988)

The principal instructions and rituals mingled Crowley’s magic with Masonic symbolism and ingredients from the East. And from this a new generation of advocates for a new feminist spirituality has emerged. Among these were Alexander Sanders, Sybil Leek, Raymond and Rosemary Buckland, Margot Adler, Jim Alan, Jessie Wicker Bell, Gavin and Yvonne Frost, Doreen Valiente, Zsuzanna Budapest, Donna Cole, Ed Fitch, Janet and Stewart Farrar (replaced after his death by Gavin Bone), and numerous others, including a great many rogues and charlatans. Alex Sanders had the greatest impact in England during the 1960s at the time of the counter-culture, occult explosion, and a fast growing mass media. Seán Manchester confronted the self-styled “King of the Witches” on Radio London in January 1971 at a time when Sanders was threatening to raise a demon before an audience on the stage of the Hendon Classic Cinema, London. The event went terribly wrong. Sanders blamed it on the fact that someone sitting in the audience near the stage was wearing a silver Christian cross. 

The self-proclaimed “King of the Witches.”

Alex Sanders’ early life is mysterious and various published accounts are undoubtedly fictional for the most part. He was born Orrell Alexander Carter in Birkenhead on 6 June 1926, the son of a Harold, a musician, and Hannah Carter. His Welsh grandmother, Mrs Bibby, was apparently a cunning woman and medium who gave him an early interest in the occult. His mother was also a medium as was Alex and all his brothers. The young Alex Sanders (he later changed his surname to Sanders by deed poll) became quite well known as a trance medium where he lived. The claim by him that he was initiated into witchcraft by his grandmother when he was seven years old, after he interrupted one of her solitary rituals, is largely dismissed even by other witches. Mrs Bibby was a cunning woman from the foothills of Snowdonia, but not quite a witch. The initiation story is probably an elaboration of Mrs Bibby’s influence on him that (along with his mother) introduced him to spiritualism and the occult. According to Sanders’disciple Stewart Farrar: “Neither Alex nor the family had any idea [Mrs Bibby] was a witch, but she gave him no time to brood. She had the clothes off him, initiated him on the spot, and told him that he was now a witch too and that various dreadful things would happen if he betrayed the secret.” Bearing in mind that Sanders was a seven-year-old child at the time, the claim is more redolent of child abuse than witchcraft as understood by today’s practitioners. His assertion that his “book of shadows” was given him by his grandmother is therefore also certainly false. It is fundamentally a Gardnerian one with some differences and some of the prose sections missing.

Sanders gave a very vivid account of his early manhood in King of the Witches by June Johns with tales of his falling into the ways of the Left-hand Path when he was adopted by a wealthy, childless couple. He supposedly immersed himself into a life of hedonistic orgies dedicated to the dark powers, describing this as his “black magic phase.” According to the same work, Sanders rescued himself by undergoing the long exhaustive ritual of purification in the magical system of Abramelin in order to purge himself of his excesses. He nevertheless died in abject poverty with lung cancer in a hospice on the East Sussex coast of England, close to where Aleister Crowley had also died four decades earlier, and where Kevin Carlyon still resides in a nearby small seaside resort. The date of Alex Sanders’ death at the age of sixty-one is 30 April 1988 (Beltane on the witchcraft calendar).

The sheer number of modern-day witches suggests a wide variety of beliefs and practices. However, despite the pluralism and diversity, distinct principles derived from Gardnerian wicca are common to most modern witches. First and foremost is the belief in the Great Mother Goddess. Historically she has manifested in numerous forms: Artemis, Astarte, Aphrodite, Diana, Kore, Hecate etc. The consort Pan (the Horned God) is the male principle of wicca. He, too, possesses a varied nomenclature, including such names as Adonis, Apollo, Baphomet, Cernunnos, Dionysius, Lucifer, Osiris, Thor etc. The Mother Goddess is represented by the moon and the Horned God is represented by the sun. Each year, Pan dies and is brought back to life in a ceremony called “Drawing down the Sun.” The ceremony associated with the Mother Goddess is called “Drawing down the Moon.” Each coven varies in the ceremonial details. Wiccans, or witches, nonetheless have a calendar that is common to all groups. High festive days pinpoint key phases in the seasonal progress of mother earth. There are eight seasonal festivals, known as Sabbats, identified as follows: Imbolg (February 2); Spring Equinox (March 21); Beltane (April 30); Midsummer Solstice (June22); Lugnasad (July 31); Autumn Equinox (September 21); Samhain, also known as Hallowe’en (October 31); Winter Solstice (December 22). Imbolg, Beltane, Lugnasad and Samhain are known as the Greater Sabbats, while the four equinoxes are the Lesser Sabbats. Additional meeting times for covens are Esbats.

Witches practice clairvoyance, divination, astral projection, spells, curses, and herbal healing. They are supposed to follow a principle of ethics known as the wiccan rede where the effects of magic are believed to return threefold upon the person working it for good or ill. Not all adhere to this voluntary code. Their very belief in gods and goddesses, whether symbolic or not, identifies witchcraft groups as embracing a polytheistic conceptualisation of the universe. Modern witches, however, do not necessarily believe in a pantheon of male and female deities, but that reality itself is understood in many different ways. Truth is not a matter of correspondence between language, the world, or any one conceptual model. Put differently, there is no singular expression of truth. Truths that are contradictory are held to simultaneously. Symbols that accompany wiccan lore include the amulet, the talisman, the ankh, the pentagram, the athame (ritual dagger), the cup, the pentacle, the rune, the sigil, the wand, the tarot, the cauldron, the altar, the fith-fath (effigy) etc.

Witchcraft is sharply at odds with Christianity. Divination, spiritism, magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult in general are condemned in the Bible. The polytheism in witchcraft is also a blatant contradiction to the strict monotheism of Christianity. Like most other non-Christian religions and religious cults of the world, witchcraft obliterates the distinction between Creator and creation. 

Wiccans deify nature in such a way that both God and nature are identified as synonymous. Furthermore, since divinity lies in nature and in the cosmos, it also resides within each person. Here it can be observed that wiccan thought closely parallels Hinduism and other Eastern paradigms. 

Traditional Christian thought holds that witchcraft has its source in Satan, the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4: 4). Some wiccan groups are indeed an introduction to overt diabolism and devil worship, but by no means all act as a front for fundamentalist Satanism. Principal influence of the occult revival in the twentieth century is undoubtedly Aleister Crowley without whom there would be no modern witchcraft movement today.

Crowley: self-styled “Great Beast 666.”

Wiccan thought offers a variety of views concerning the existence of evil and very few would deny its existence. However, the most common view among witches is to understand evil, not as a separate reality apart from good, as do Manichaeans, Satanists, and other groups, but rather as a necessary aspect of good. Yet is the evil that human beings encounter in the world and in history an acceptable and healthy aspect of a reality that, according to wiccan thought, has no flaws to begin with? How can such a view of evil be reconciled to the wiccan rede: “That ye harm none, do what ye will”? Is not evil harmful? To the victims and families of a murderer it certainly is. If there is no one absolute standard or set of truths exclusive of all falsities, how can even the wiccan rede be regarded as true? To grant that it is, is to grant that there is at least one absolute truth. Many witches are willing to live with this blatant contradiction because of either naïveté, intellectual dishonesty, or convenience.

For Christianity, God is the source of all truth, and the Bible is God’s revelation of such truth, deemed necessary for the world. There is a clear choice between the path of darkness, the Left-hand Path, and the path directed toward the Light of the World, the Right-hand Path.

Church of Satan

On 7 June 2000 the small Italian town of Chiavenna was rocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder in one of its quiet back lanes. The blood-soaked victim, who had been struck with rocks and smashed against a wall before being stabbed nineteen times, was later identified as Sister Maria Laura, the much-loved Mother Superior of the local convent. The brutality of the killing shocked townspeople, and attracted widespread media attention: and with no obvious motive for the murder, rumours soon started to fly. Satanic signs and slogans were found nearby and the killing was blamed on devil worshippers striking a blow against the Catholic Church. On 28 June 2000 three popular teenage girls were arrested.

They were fans of the depraved “entertainer” Marilyn Manson, a member of the Church of Satan, whose lyrics are too blasphemous, hate-filled and obscene to quote on this group. At first the girls’ attitude was arrogant and cold. They refused to speak to the police. But when they eventually began to speak it became apparent that their appalling crime was a premeditated act. Milena, one of the girls, admitted that they had met outside the church one night and cut their hands, drinking the blood while they pledged an oath of eternal loyalty to each other. “We decided to go for a nun,”

Veronica, another of the three girls, told her interrogators, “because she was the opposite of us. We believe in Satan.” The third girl is named Ambra. They beat the nun into unconsciousness with a tile and by beating her head against a stone wall. When that failed, they took out knives and stabbed her to death. But throughout her ordeal, Sister Maria Laura had prayed for her attackers, and promised them that God would forgive them even as she did herself. Armed with these confessions, the carabinieri searched the girls’ homes and found diaries testifying to their obsession with Satanism, and with the lyrics of the degenerate performer and singer Marilyn Manson who cashed-in on the tragedy when touring Italy in February 2001.

Marilyn Manson said:

“If having your own opinion makes you evil, then I am evil. … All I say is don’t feel guilty for having emotions like lust, greed and hate - because you are going to have them.”

On 9 August 2001 Ambra had the case against her dismissed on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and was sentenced to three years’ rehabilitation. The other two girls, Milena and Veronica, were found guilty of first degree murder and were each sentenced to eight years and six months. There is a move in Chiavenna to have Sister Maria Laura, who had taught in the town for more than thirty years, beatified.

Aleister Crowley’s satanic religion of Thelema, followed by the birth of modern witchcraft, occult explosion of the 1960s-1970s and the New Age movement of the 1980s-1990s, all share a common heritage from where the current satanic revival has found succour. The formal establishment of the Church of Satan, with such derivatives as the Temple of Set, has certainly played its part. Between Charles Manson, Son of Sam and Richard Ramirez alone we have dozens of murders in the name of Satan.

One could easily add to this list case after case that would fill several books, but the point has more than sufficiently been made for those who will honestly look at the evidence. The most influential and notorious satanic leaders have had a campaign to dupe their followers into becoming unwitting followers of not a symbol, nor an abstract force, but of Satan himself. Not only their own admissions, but the deceptive web they have spun to prey on outer circle initiates, give witness to this fact.

Marilyn Manson with Anton LaVey of the Church of Satan.

Anton LaVey

One of the delusions that will need to be established at the outset is the lie that leading Satanists do not believe in or truly worship the Devil. Anton LaVey viewed Satan as a true entity that he absolutely worshipped before his death. LaVey deceived a lot of people who joined the Church of Satan by claiming that Satan only represented the repressed forces of nature, but was not a real entity. Interviews with former Charles Manson family member Susan Atkins resulted in Atkins blowing the lid off of LaVey’s lie.

As a former associate of Anton LaVey’s, who danced for him and spent personal time with him before joining the Manson family, Atkins was privy to conversations with LaVey before he became popular. Atkins revealed repeatedly that, while LaVey promoted a watered down, almost palatable form of Satanism to the ignorant masses whom he deceived, he acknowledged the exact opposite to her and to his inner core of Satanists within the Church of Satan. Susan Atkins revealed that LaVey told her emphatically, while she was in his home, that they truly worshipped Satan as a real entity and as the one who began the initial rebellion against God.

Atkins also stated:

“Anton told me that as a Satanist he does believe in the God of the Bible but he refused to worship Him and made a conscious decision to worship Satan instead.” (Susan Atkins interviewed by Joe Schimmel).

There are pictures of Atkins with LaVey in his ritual chamber when she associated with the Church of Satan. LaVey was aware that few people were ignorant enough to truly turn their lives over to Satan, knowing that they would not only be allowing themselves to be deceived by their worst enemy, but that they would spend eternity in the fiery torments of hell.

LaVey, therefore, presented a sensitive, user-friendly form of Satanism in the hope that it might appeal to the masses he was seeking to deceive. LaVey sought to put a spin on Satanism as a kinder and gentler form of Devil worship claiming that Satan merely represents a force in nature, and that, rather than Satanists’ sacrificing animals and little children, they are animal activist who love children. All of this was done to garner unwitting recruits. First and foremost, one should never trust a Satanist. Satanist’s view lying to be among their highest virtues. 

LaVey and other Satanists serve the one whom Jesus Christ repudiated as “The father of lies.” (John 8: 44). And, of course, it would be entirely appropriate for the father of lies to cloak his religion in non-reality. Satan has long been about deception and has successfully deceived many recruits into believing that they are simply worshipping a symbol rather than a reality. Satan relishes in such ignorance. Atkins’ testimony that LaVey was deliberately duping Satanists in the outer circle is corroborated by evidence from LaVey’s himself.

LaVey let his guard down when responding to other Satanists who considered him “not extreme enough.” LaVey, while in a defensive mode, admitted that the image he was presenting publicly was deceptive, declaring:

“If they’re at all intelligent [other true Satanists] … they’ll realise that there’s only so much I can say publicly … I will not advance things in print which make my position untenable … How long would the Church of Satan have lasted if I hadn’t appeased and outraged in just the right combination? It required a certain amount of discretion and diplomacy to balance the outrage.” (Lucifer Rising, page 133).

Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966 in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht (April 30th). LaVey identified his particular brand of Satanism in his book The Satanic Bible (1969). A derivative group, and offspring of the Church of Satan, is the Temple of Set founded by Michael Aquino in 1975.

Purposeful deception is needed amongst leading Satanists to enslave those whom they recruit as unscrupulous and unsuspecting pawns who feel more comfortable believing Satan is a symbol for force. Few Satanists realise the evil intentions among the inner core of the cult and how lower initiates are viewed as mere puppets to be used and later discarded. Those in the higher echelon are often aware of the nature of Satan and the demonic realm that they serve. They are often bound and blinded on another level because they have become addicted to the power that Satan deceptively promises. Kenneth Anger, who was a cofounder of the Church of Satan with Anton LaVey, used a similar spin on Satanism, as did LaVey. Kenneth Anger stated in the 1960’s, in his film, Lucifer Rising, that, “Lucifer is the light god, not the Devil.” (Publicity of the jacket for Lucifer Rising). This delusion that Lucifer is really the God of light, and not Satan, should not surprise those familiar with God’s word, which warns that Satan “masquerades” as an “angel of light” to draw the unsuspecting into his evil web. His agents do likewise.

Years later, after Kenneth Anger had deceived multitudes of people into thinking they were worshipping the supposed “light god”, an entity that was not really Satan, Anger “confessed” that Lucifer, whom he worshipped, had always been the historical “Satan.” (Lucifer Rising, page 47). It was too late though for many Satanists who had been deceived. It appears that Marilyn Manson is playing the same mind game with his fans as did LaVey and Anger. Besides following LaVey, who deceived his followers, Manson admitted, “I’ve taken a lot of my inspiration from Kenneth Anger.”Sadly, while the leaders among Satanists realise that Satan is for real, many who swell the ranks of their churches have been duped into believing that they are in some nature religion. They are taught that either a real Satan does not exist, or that hell will not be all that hot. This, of course, is sheer nonsense. 

Anton LaVey himself was severely deceived as he stated in his Satanic Bible that he would reign with Satan in hell. LaVey now realised he was the most deceived of all. The scriptures are clear that hell was created as a place of torment for Satan and his angels. (Matt 25: 40-43). Moreover, God’s Word declares that Satan will be stripped of his power and rendered “weak” and “covered with worms.”Satan will be rendered one of the weakest and most pathetic beings in the universe, an object of ridicule and scorn by those who were deceived by him. Those who have been deceived by him will marvel that this once powerful fallen angel has been rendered powerless and will mock him as a“carcass trodden under foot” in their torment. (Isaiah 14: 9-19). So even leaders in the Church of Satan, who are deceiving their initiates, are themselves deceived, believing that they will have some place of power in hell. As St Paul prophesied:

“Evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3: 13)

Richard Ramirez, known as the night Stalker, was deceived by Anton LaVey’s assertion in the Satanic Bible that Satanists could reign in Hell. Ramirez believed that his human sacrifices to Satan would earn him a place of power in Hell next to Jack the Ripper and other serial killers. Further evidence of what leading Satanists really believe is revealed in admissions made by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Aquino of the United States Army. Aquino was a leader in LaVey’s Church of Satan and was LaVey’s “second-in-command” before he broke off to begin his own satanic order called the Temple of Set. Aquino ended up taking several of LaVey’s followers with him.

 

The Temple of Set would eventually attract the likes of Anton LaVey’s daughter Zeena LaVey. So rabid a Satanist is Aquino that he had the number 666 tatooed on his scalp. The Temple of Set proclaims that Set, another name for Satan, is a real entity and is a name for “The oldest known form of the Prince of Darkness.” Aquino seems to have been under the conviction that society had become so jaded that many of those in the outer circle of Satanism were ready to worship Satan as a real entity. Aquino believed it was time for Satan to come out of the closet in all of his naked deformity. Aquino even took the more up front view of Satanism to the television airways where he virtually admitted that Satan is a real entity and that many are in the dark as to whom they are really worshipping, including millions of New Agers. On Oprah Winfrey, Aquino acknowledged that they are following the infernal being that orchestrated the initial rebellion against God, the Creator of the Universe. Aquino admitted to Winfrey and the television audience made up of millions that they are following Satan who initiated the original rebellion against God:

“We believe that this quality [to oppose God’s natural order] in the human soul that makes it different from all other life forms … was deliberately inculcated in humanity in its distant evolutionary past by an active agency that is acting in defiance of the universal norm [God’s moral law]. And that agency has been caricatured … as Lucifer, as Satan, and, in the greatest antiquity, by the ancient Egyptians as Set.”

Aquino went on to describe how they believe that they as Satanists are now becoming gods. This was at the heart of Satan’s initial rebellion and now Aquino was parroting the essence of Satanism, which is a desire to usurp the true and living God’s authority and follow Satan into God realisation. “We are not servants of some God,” declared Aquino, “we are our own gods!” Oprah Winfrey appeared to be shocked to find out that this was exactly what she believed as a New Ager, failing to realise that the New Age movement has it roots in Crowleyite Satanism even as Aquino’s Satanism. It has been established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Crowley was not only a confessed Satanist, but that he was the father of the hippy drug movement and counter-culture from which popular New Age teachings first became entrenched in Western civilisation. Almost gasping for air, Winfrey declared in response to Aquino’s assertion:

“Well, the way you explain this is very the way a lot of people who are into metaphysics now and the New Age movement and New Age thinking, they say the very same thing. Are you saying that it’s the same?”

Aquino, without skipping a beat, said “Yes” to Winfrey’s question, implying that New Agers and Satanist are on the same wave length in their rebellion against God and in their quest to achieve god-hood as they follow in Satan’s footsteps. He only clarified that most New Agers are not aware that they have joined a satanic rebellion against God and that Satanists know what is going on. Aquino stated:

“Yes, except that I would say we [Satanists] have a more precise grasp … We would say that we understand what’s actually happening a little better than many New Agers.”

Much to Aquino’s chagrin the Temple of Set would find out that even as debauched as the world has become most people are still smart enough not to knowingly serve Satan and end up spending eternity in Hell. After bringing Satan out of the closet the Temple of Set failed to enlist the large amount of recruits they apparently hoped for. In their failure to acquire more recruits they changed their method of evangelism and returned to a formula more in keeping with that of the Church of Satan. Today the Temple of Set, like the Church of Satan, espouses a more palatable seeker sensitive form of Satanism so as not to scare off potential recruits. The result is that Satan is once again cloaked in ambiguity, but the song remains the same as inner circle initiates are deceiving outer circle initiates.

Winfrey was surprised that Aquino, as a confessed Satanist, would try to deny the hard facts of the evil behind Satanism. When Aquino stated that they as Satanists have “nothing to do with evil,” she said:

“It’s just difficult for me to understand that the Devil is a good thing…that Satan isn’t evil, which is the opposite of what everybody in this world has been taught…”

Winfrey went on to exclaim:

“In every state of the nation authorities are investigating some form of what they call satanic activity … Children are telling the same stories about infants being murdered before their eyes in strange devil rituals. The list of bizarre stories goes on and on.”

Not surprisingly, Aquino tried unsuccessfully at this point to put another typical spin on Satanism by claiming that they are not into such things. Even as leading Satanists like to hide the fact that they are truly worshipping Satan so it is that they seek to deny that Satanists sacrifice humans including children. The truth of the matter is that Aleister Crowley, whom Aquino acknowledges had an incredible influence on Aquino and the Temple of Set, not only taught his followers to engage in child sacrifice but admitted to sacrificing scores of children himself. After Aquino made the false claim that Satanists do not really sacrifice children, a law enforcement officer spoke up and stated:

“To say that there are no bodies and that these [Satanists] are not committing crimes is the farthest from the truth … in every case that I’ve investigated, now extending over two hundred, I have found this particular book [The Satanic Bible].”

At this point the investigator held up The Satanic Bible. In The Satanic Bible, LaVey proclaimed that he was seeking to “not advance things in print which make my position untenable” lest he find himself behind bars, and further stated that his followers were to commit human sacrifices by proxy:

“We perform human sacrifices, by proxy you might say—the destruction of human beings who would, let’s say, create an antagonistic situation toward us—in the form of curse and hexes, not in actual blood rituals because certainly the destruction of a human being physically is illegal.”

Note that the only reason LaVey concedes that he is not publicly advocating actual physical human sacrifice is because it is against the law, implying that if they could get away with it they would do it. In fact, LaVey takes credit for the deaths of Jayne Mansfield and her boy friend and lawyer Sam Brody, stating that it was the result of a ritual curse on Brody, and Mansfield happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. LaVey also believes that he was responsible for the Manson family murders. Manson was heavily influenced by the satanic cult known as the Process Church of the Final Judgement. The Process also acknowledged that Satan is a real entity. Their particular twisted spin in an effort to get unwitting recruits was not to pretend Satan was not a true entity but to claim that Satan was actually a Jesus loving Devil. The Process claimed that they, Jesus and Satan had reconciled and that all would work out well in the end for everyone including Satanists, because Jesus had supposedly forgiven the Devil. Ridiculous as this spin was it proved successful in garnering more than a few recruits. The bodies have piled up and the idea that Satanism is not behind the death of countless multitudes of innocent people is a lie only believed by the incredibly naîve. Manson, who was a confessed Satanist, was responsible of up to thirty-five murders if the admissions of some of his former followers are to believed. Charles Manson, whom Marilyn Manson cites as one of his pre-eminent inspirations and a brilliant philosopher, has stated, “Jesus Christ is for real and so is that other guy [ie Satan].” Charles Manson knows that Satan, whom he serves, is a real entity and has been more candid than has his follower Marilyn Manson. Son of Sam, who was part of a Process coven made up of twenty-two Satanists and connected to several other satanic covens, also murdered several people at the direction of the coven. Richard Ramirez, who followed The Satanic Bible and met with Anton LaVey before his satanic killing spree, killed twenty people. Ramirez even went so far as to torture his victims and made some “swear to Satan.”

Celebrities who are also members of the Church of Satan include the entertainer Sammy Davis Junior who can be seen pictured between Michael Aquino and Anton Lavey. The singer/dancer sported a coloured finger-nail on the little finger of one of his hands in his latter years. The colour, eg black, redetc, depicts a rank held within the Church of Satan. A growing number of celebrities wear the same painted finger-nail for the same reason today.

The Faustian Pact

A Faustian Pact is a link and bargain between a human and Satan or a lesser demon. The latter offers specific services and fulfills the individual human's wish or desire in compensation of consuming the said human's soul after the contract is completed.

The demon might consume the human's soul, after fufilling the wishes of the human, at even the cost of their life.

To fulfill something tantalising and difficult to accomplish, such as a satisfying revenge, a human is required to give up their soul as payment.

It is also understood that some individuals make this type of pact just as a sign of recognising the Devil as their master, in exchange for nothing.

The pact can be oral or written. An oral pact is made by means of invocations, conjurations, or rituals to attract the demon. Once the conjurer thinks the demon is present, he/she asks for the wanted favour and offers his/her soul in exchange, and no evidence is left of the pact; but according to some witch trials and inquisitions that were performed, even the oral pact left evidence, namely the diabolical mark, an indelible mark where the marked person had been touched by the Devil to seal the pact. The mark could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. It was also believed that on the spot where the mark was left, the marked person could feel no pain. A written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurer's blood (although sometimes was also alleged that the whole pact had to be written with blood). Forms of these include contracts or simply signing your name into Satan's Red Book. The Malleus Maleficarum discusses several alleged instances of pacts with the Devil, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with a demon, especially with Satan.

According to demonology, there is a specific month, day of the week, and hour to call each demon, so the invocation for a pact has to be done at the right time. Also, as each demon has a specific function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to request.

In the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is offered a series of bargains by the Devil, in which He is promised worldly riches and glory in exchange for serving the Devil rather than God. After Jesus rejects the Devil's temptation, He embarks upon his journey as the Messiah.

Aleister Crowley was himself the head of the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis, as well as being a depraved diabolist who indulged his foul appetites in a descending spiral of disgusting decadence.

Over the years the original medieval Templars became tainted with Islamic mysticism, and Gnosticism was embraced by some while in Palestine. They became further contaminated by a sect known as the Assassins. The Order of Knights Templar inevitably degenerated, and some are believed to have engaged in the practice of Phallicism, or sex worship, and Satanism - venerating Baphomet, the idol of Luciferians. 

The crime of sodomy was eventually a rite of Templar initiation. Such masonic ritual is Luciferian worship, despite their very clever attempts to hide this fact. The Grand Master at the time - when King Philip IV of France tried and executed key members - was named Jacques de Molay. Since de Molay was Grand Master of the Knights Templar, it can be assumed he was also involved in these satanic and homosexual acts. 

“DeMolay” is somewhat disturbingly one of the orders of Freemasonry for young men.

Baphomet (from Medieval Latin Baphometh, Baffometi, Occitan Bafometz) is a term originally used to describe an idol or other deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping, and that subsequently was incorporated into disparate occult and mystical traditions. It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. The name first came into popular English usage in the 19th century, with debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars.

Since 1856, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Levi which contains binary elements representing the "sum total of the universe" (eg male and female, good and evil etc.). Baphomet, of course, is principally associated with diabolism due to the adoption of it as a symbol by the Church of Satan.

The Sigil of Baphomet was originally a goat pentagram that appeared in the book La Clef de la Magie Noire by French occultist Stanislas de Guaita in 1897. This symbol would later become synonymous with Baphomet, and is commonly referred to as the Goat of Mendes or Sabbatic Goat.

Samael is a figure in the Talmud and Lilith is a female demon in Jewish mythology. The Hebrew letters at the five points of the pentagram spell out Leviathan, a mythic creature in Jewish lore. This symbol was later adapted by the Church of Satan in 1969 and officially named as the Sigil of Baphomet.

Aleister Crowley was initiated into Freemasonry on 8 October 1904, presumably passed the following month, and raised on 17 December 1904. He was the Secretary of Quatour Coronati Lodge. Crowley had already been initiated into an irregular form of Scottish Rite Masonry in Mexico City in 1900 and this ultimately led to his plethora of high degree systems. This included both the systems of Memphis and Mizraim and the Antient and Primitive Rites. Details of this can be found in Crowley’s ownConfessions. This is turn led to his contact with Theodore Reuss and the OTO. which, as history has shown, had a profound affect and was among the most important moves in Crowley’s life. Reuss was associated with the degree collector McBlain Thomson, which led Crowley to contact with Spenser Lewis of AMORC among others. Crowley eventually distanced himself from Thomson and purged OTO to a great degree of its infringements on regular Masonry, but the stigma was attached and the charges rightly and wrongly of his activities as a clandestine Mason linger.

The United Grand Lodge of England, on the other hand, has a committee that judges whether a person was ever a Freemason whenever there is a question of legitimacy. They have deemed Aleister Crowley not to be a Mason based on their judgement of his “character” in spite of the fact that they now recognise the Lodge into which he was initiated, whereas they recognise Mozart as a Freemason even though the Strict Observance to which Mozart belonged has at no time ever been considered regular by the United Grand Lodge of England. In the United States such matters are determined by Masonic code and such problems never arise.

If a Grand Lodge is considered regular, the work of its subordinate bodies is considered regular. American Freemasons can feel confident that with the recognition of the Grand National Lodge of France and its dependent body Anglo Saxon #103, Aleister Crowley’s mother lodge, Crowley’s initiation, passing and raising as Freemason was fully regularised and is technically recognised by Masonic code in every United States jurisdiction.

Even in Crowley’s time, the vast majority of Freemasons in the United States would have considered his initiation regular with the recognition of the Grand Lodge du France, unrecognised until WWI but certainly at no time either clandestine or irregular.

Aleister Crowley was for a great part of his life a regular Freemason and his life and work reflect the instructions given in Freemasonry. His magick, his work in the Golden Dawn, A∴A∴ and OTO, including the Book of the Law (Liber Legis), reflect Masonic ideas and ideals and his work cannot really be fully understood without the context of Freemasonry.